818 Reviews contribution to Irish studies but also as a model for futuremusico-literary criti cism. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Matthew Paul Carlson Teaching World Literature. Ed. byDavid Damrosch. (Options forTeaching) New York: Modern Language Association of America. 2009. viii+432 pp. $40 (pbk$22). ISBN 978-1-60329-033-3 (pbk 978-1-60329-034-0). This collection comprises thirty-two essays by different authors, in fiveparts: Is sues and Definitions', 'Program Strategies', 'Teaching Strategies', 'Courses' (show ing what an exemplary syllabus in world literaturemight be), and 'Resources', including bibliographies. David Damrosch begins by asking 'What literature? Whose world? How has literature been understood in itsmyriad manifestations over time and across space?' (p. 3). He refers to Goethe's idea of 'world litera ture' as classics, masterpieces, and windows on theworld (p. 3), and agrees with JohnPizer (The Idea ofWorld Literature (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006)) that, even ifonly primary texts are studied, 'world literature courses should include direct discussion of thehistory of the termWeltliteratur (p. 3), first used by Goethe. He also discusses national literatures and literature in translation, maintaining that the study ofworld literaturemust be seen 'not in competition but in symbiosis with the study of national and regional traditions' (p. 9). The essays inPart 1are themost theoretical, discussing what literature should be taught and what world we refer to inworld-literature courses. Sarah Lawall argues 'if"West" refers to something more than geography [. . .] then the excluded "rest" becomes even more problematic' (p. 17). She compares, as many contributors do, anthologies ofworld literature, noting that our understanding of texts is shaped by Western frameworks, such as 'Renaissance', 'Enlightenment', and 'Romanticism', even if the volume (such as theNorton Anthology ofWorld Literature (New York: Norton, 2002)) deals with literature in China or Japan (p. 27). Lawall maintains that translation is a challenge for aworld-literature anthology because of differing linguistic and cultural traditions, the difficultyof locating accurate translation, and even the issue of getting translation right.Other problems include how genre is changed in translation and how, for example, songs of African oral performance or the dialect of a Greek comedy should be translated. These important issues, pinpointed in one paragraph, could have been developed further.On translation, Lawrence Venuti applies Derrida's idea of iterability, that themeaning of any sign can change, and argues that if translation partakes of iterability, it is actually a recontextualizing process. He engages with the question of what happens when a narrative from the global periphery is translated into a core language such as English using English-language stylistic analogues (p. 94). He suggests a possible destabilizing power in doing so.While translation is an issue inworld literature, surprisingly, none of the contributors refers to Benjamin's ideas on translation in 'The Task of the Translator (in Illuminations (London: Fontana, 1968), pp. 70 82). Vilashini Cooppan uses The Arabian Nights to discuss the ethical obligations MLR, 105.3, 2010 819 of world literature by referring to such postcolonial critics as Spivak and Homi Bhabha: the 'world' is an issue, or in Spivak's term, 'the arrogance of ambition' which mimes the imperial certitudes of the West's recognition of itself through its others (p. 37). Cooppan suggests a reading technique for someone who does not read The Arabian Nights inArabic: to consult versions throughout the history of translating the work and remind ourselves that the aim of reading world litera ture is to 'decolonize' the hegemony ofWestern schemas (p. 40). Zhang Longxi demonstrates how themetaphor of life-as-a-journey can be compared in itsuses by Plato and theChinese philosopher Zhuangzi. He argues that 'philosophy, religion, history, and literature are notmutually exclusive' (p. 65), and thatwhat is appealing 'is not just linguistic ingenuity [. . .]but the attractiveness of its thematic content, the idea thatmanifests itself in felicitous language and exquisite poetic expres sions' (p. 65). Following this,Zhang argues, 'sometimes we may find Shakespeare closer in spirit to the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming than to his fellow countryman' (p. 70). Thus the aim of studyingworld literature is 'to acquire a broad perspective for discerning thematic affinities and patterns of literary imagination beyond the gaps of languages and cultures' (p. 71...